Special Projects Division

I’m switching to PC after 27 years of Mac.

I have a problem. I need a new computer, and I have money to spend. But this time, I don’t think I’ll be buying a Mac.

I already have an iMac Late 2014, fully upgraded and top of the line, but it is too slow in CPU and GPU, especially when editing 42MP photos from my Sony A7R II. I also have a late 2013 Retina MacBook Pro 15″, and it too, desperately needs an upgrade.

So, What should I buy? I need a new desktop, for gaming and photo editing, and a laptop, as a more mobile workstation. Price is not an issue for me per se, but I do want to get good value from my hard earned.

The iMac chassis design overheats during operations that use GPU and CPU simultaneously, such as gaming.

No Mac is available with sufficiently powerful graphics for modern-day top-tier gaming.

No Mac is available with expandable internal HDD and SSD storage.

Their prices are ridiculous

Mac retail prices are overpriced by a significant margin, more than they ever were.

The components Apple chooses to put in their machine do not make sense for my needs, I would end up paying Apple prices for parts that I wouldn’t choose myself.

Then, if you look into a build-to-order, you are again hit with crazy overpriced RAM and SSD upgrades.

I would be locking myself into future pain

If I buy an iMac, I’m again locking $1200 worth of 5k screen into a machine that is not upgradable.

Thunderbolt accessories are crazy overpriced, and broad adoption/support has not eventuated. Just like firewire…

I experienced screen burn-in 3 times with my 5K iMac screen, thank goodness I paid (extra!) for Applecare. If the screen on the iMac dies, the computer is worthless, so I would have had no option but to fork out $1000 each time for a new screen if I hadn’t opted for applecare. That’s a scary prospect.

Dongle life. SD cards are clearly not going anywhere, yet the SD card readers were removed from all Apple’s laptops.

Their software is getting worse

Mac OS is becoming worse, I stayed with High Sierra after everyone I know who upgraded (power users) had major problems. That was my first warning sign that the end was near.

Keychain Access. Do I need to say more?

Safari, which used to be my browser of choice, has been cut off at the knees, with existing plugin support destroyed with little to no warning.

My Macbook Pro has been seriously affected by High Sierra, which completely obliterated graphics performance. Things now become stuttery and laggy all too easily. This problem has not been fixed in Mojave either. Looks like I’m not the only one with this problem:

I don’t need or want to stay in the Apple ecosystem any more.

I pay for Dropbox, since iCloud drive is just a joke. It’s the Google+ of cloud file storage.

Apple photos / iCloud photos is clunky and inflexible.

I don’t have an iPhone X, or Apple watch, so I don’t really care about sending heartbeats, or Animoji.

Keychain password sync is a bad sport and doesn’t work with other platforms.

Am I nit picking? Perhaps. But for me the experience is cumulative.

For many years now, I have gotten used to explaining to people why they can’t do something that seems obvious easily on their computer: “because Apple didn’t design it to do that”. Having worked at an Apple Store, I’m quite capable of coming up with creative “positioning” statements to explain and justify these deficiencies as “carefully thought through deliberate decisions”. However, I’m just plain tired of doing that for myself with my own issues I encounter.

Over the years, I’ve definitely spread a lot of goodwill for Apple. I’ve definitely been a “promoter” of their vision and their ethos. When things weren’t perfect, I was quick to believe that Steve Jobs’ passing wasn’t a factor. However, in the last few years, I have been finding myself running into insurmountable limitations myself more and more often. Issues and inconsistencies that I couldn’t explain away or justify. Frankly, I’m just over it. I no longer feel like Apple is listening, and my patience has worn away. It’s actually a little sad, to recognise that the fondness I once held for such a special company, has practically evaporated.